Pajamas TV Hearing on the Stimulus Mess [Update]

Update (3:35 pm) – I just received the press release with all of the details for tomorrow’s hearing. See them pasted below the jump.

Call it the Geithner Effect: our new Treasury Secretary goes up to Congress (the very day the “stimulus” “ye dare not call it pork” plan passes) to unveil his new financial rescue plan and the market tanks, with the Dow ending 382 points down for the day.

Tomorrow at noon, Pajamas TV will be holding a live hearing to discuss just how damage we are doing our economy. People talk about “mortgaging our future,” but what does that really mean?

Are we facing a Second Great Depression, that completely restructures the balance of power in the world. If we go the way of Europe, who will power the world economy and provide the entrepreneurial inventiveness that powers economic growth? China? India, if we’re lucky?

I noticed that in his press conference, Obama complained that the original TARP had been mishandled in the Bush administration (…”because of a lack of clarity and consistency in how it was applied, a lack of oversight in – in how the money went out, we didn’t get as big a band for the buck as we should have.”). So that’s why he’s putting the same guy in charge of spending the rest?

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pajamas TV (www.PJTV.com) announced today that it will hold an initial “Hearing” beginning at noon Thursday on the stimulus package here in Washington, D.C . The hearing will feature economic and health care experts who will explore the realities of the so called stimulus package and the potential impact on future health care coverage and benefits. The hearing will also include Joe Wurzelbacher, known to America as Joe the Plumber.

The hearing, to be broadcast live on PJTV, will go from 12:00 noon Eastern time to 2:00 PM Eastern time at the offices of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. It will be open to the public and media with limited space. Advance registration is required at Laurencapper@gmail.com. The public can submit questions for the panel via email at hearing@pjtv.com or by Twitter replies to twitter.com/pjtv.

In discussions of the impact of the stimulus bill and related bailout measures before Congress, for the most part, the public hears inexact expressions such as “mortgaging our future” and “putting a financial burden on our grandchildren.” But are there more direct impacts that result from the astronomical levels of spending and borrowing currently being contemplated?

A GAO (Government Accounting Office) 2007 Financial Report of the U.S. Government indicated that in about 2030 to 2040 our federal government revenues would not be sufficient to pay already enacted nondiscretionary items like Social Security, net interest payments, Medicaid and Medicare. The growing costs of entitlements are bringing that date closer. Interest payments on past and future borrowing for bailout and stimulus packages could bring the date closer still.

Although there are some measures and plans to reign in health care and entitlement costs, will these measures compensate for the higher interest costs that the US will pay? Will we reach a point when medical coverage and benefits will need to be severely cut because of financial decisions we are making today? If so, how can we prudently balance today’s spending and borrowing with possible impacts on future health coverage and Social Security benefits?

Pajamas TV

Pajamas TV is a conservative and center-right Internet TV company. Working with conservative think tanks such as The Heritage Foundation, and Manhattan Institute, and bloggers such as Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, and Hugh Hewitt, Pajamas TV started production in Sept of 2008 as the first on-line TV venture to be given a sky box at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Recently Pajamas TV has hired Joe Wurzelbacher (aka Joe the Plumber) to cover the Hamas terrorist war against Israel, the stimulus bill in Washington DC and to host the Just Joe show at Pajamas TV.

Conservatism 2.0 at CPAC

Pajamas TV is also sponsoring a joint conference at CPAC 2009 on Feb. 26 and 28 in DC – called Conservatism 2.0 – the future of Conservatism.